Cape Cod needle exchange program goes before state's highest court

Monday

Feb 13, 2017 at 9:54 AMFeb 13, 2017 at 10:08 AM

Andy Metzger

The town of Barnstable's attempt to block a clean hypodermic needle distribution program in Hyannis will be up before the state's highest court Tuesday, as a local nonprofit argues the town has no such power.

Attorneys for the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod argue there is no state statute that bars people from giving away hypodermic needles, while the town contends the program has led to a "public health crisis caused by copious amounts of discarded, uncapped hypodermic needles" left in public places, according to briefs filed with the Supreme Judicial Court.

Needle exchanges and clean needle distributions offer people addicted to drugs a means of continuing to feed their addiction without subjecting themselves to the additional risk of deadly infectious diseases that can be spread by dirty needles.

A lower court judge's injunction blocked Barnstable's September 2015 demand that the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod cease and desist its program, and the needle distribution is ongoing, according to Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which is representing the group in court.

In a brief, attorneys for the support group argue that while state law regulates the sale of hypodermic needles, it does not limit free needle distribution.

"An activity not prohibited or restricted by law is lawful," wrote GLAD's AIDS Law Project Director Ben Klein. "This Court may not add provisions to either of these statutes that the Legislature did not put there."

Barnstable attorneys Ruth Weil and Charles McLaughlin countered that a 2006 law decriminalizing possession and distribution of needles "spelled out in detail adjustments to the statutory scheme that would be followed henceforth to clearly define who would be allowed to distribute hypodermic instruments."

The town said the legal dispute is not about the support group's "good works," and said disposable needles can be obtained with MassHealth cards at a pharmacy, or at local health providers.

Citing an increase in heroin deaths and hospitalizations, former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006 vetoed legislation that proponents said would slow the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C by making clean needles readily available, without a prescription, to illegal drug users. Romney said signing the bill would lead to "unintended consequences" that he said "could be more severe than the benefits that would be achieved by signing the bill."

At the time, Romney administration officials said Department of Public Health statistics indicated transmission rate of HIV/AIDS through intravenous drug use had declined from 32.8 percent of new cases in 1997 to 15.7 percent of new cases in 2004. There were 9,612 heroin-related hospitalizations in 1997, compared to 17,704 in 2004. And over "roughly the same time period," fatal heroin overdoses jumped from 178 to 574.

The Legislature overrode Romney's veto, with supporters of the bill saying it would save lives by reducing the use of dirty needles.

Peter Koutoujian, who was a state rep at the time and is now Middlesex sheriff, said in 2006 that the bill had received the support of law enforcement officials, including four district attorneys. "Every valid study has shown that over the counter sale over hypodermic needles will not increase illegal drug use and it will most definitely reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS and Hepatitis C," Koutoujian said when the law was being implemented in September 2006. Every state that had decriminalized needle possession had seen a decrease in diseases spread through the use of needles, he said in 2006.

The case had initially been scheduled for last Thursday, but it was rescheduled because of the snowstorm.